Glorious Old Glory

 
Here are some fairly recent photos of the US Flag flying around the Big Lake area in eastern Arizona:

Here's an older 4th of July posting, showing the flag in various scenic places across the United States:   Natural Wonders of America

Signs of Change

 

In Romans 8:18-23, St. Paul wrote about how all creation was subjected to futility, to frustration, not because it did anything wrong, but because God decreed it.  (See Genesis chapter 3 where the very ground was cursed because of humanity's sin. Sinful humanity could not be allowed to live on in an otherwise perfect creation.)  Paul talks of creation groaning as if in labor pains, waiting to be set free.

Over the past 2 years, I have finally gotten my favorite flower, black-eyed Susans, to grow here, though outside of its range.  This year, however, one of the plants is putting out some freakish flowers with multi fused heads.  Below are photos of one with three fused heads developing.  

open with some "normal" heads

These links will provide you other black-eyed Susan photos and a poem I wrote about black-eyed Susans a couple years ago.  

Black-Eyed Susan (poem)

Volunteering

 

During this COVID time, we are limiting our travelling and exposure. We did take some time to do some socially distanced, responsible  volunteer painting.  (My husband held the ladder while I got up into the pinnacle!)

Nature is Never Spent (*)

"For all this, nature is never spent."*
As unto urban wastelands sent
Was this poetic English gent
Ourselves are now to parched lands lent,
Absorbing well what Hopkins meant.

I see no British Isles lush~
I look on desert city rush~
Adapting as that orange-breast thrush**
I find my own internal hush.  

"There lives the dearest freshness deep-down things,"*
As I admire our flowerings
And still the robin gamely sings.**

"For all this, nature is never spent."
On earth, this comes as form of rent
Until we dwell in Christ's new tent.***
--C. Marie Byars, 2020 (c) 
[during covid and unrest times, but not in direct response] 

*From Gerard Manley Hopkins', SJ, 1877 poem
God's Grandeur

**A U.S. robin is a type of thrush. Per various field guides, its wide range suggests it's adaptable.

***Tent/tabernacle/dwelling.  The Old Testament Tabernacle was a durable, highly ornate tent with a special purpose for worship. There, God's visible presence on earth could be found.  In John 1: 14, "The Word [Christ] became flesh and 'tabernacled' among us."  The Greek word for 'dwelling' means more literally 'tented.'

In May

The time that hints the coming leaf, 
 When buds are dropping chaff and scale,  
And, wafted from the greening vale,
Are pungent odors, keen as grief.

Now shad-bush wears a robe of white,  
And orchards hint a leafy screen; 
 While willows drop their veils of green
Above the limpid waters bright.

New songsters come with every morn, 
 And whippoorwill is overdue, 
 While spice bush gold is coined anew
Before her tardy leaves are born.

The cowslip now with radiant face  
Makes mimic sunshine in the shade, 
 Anemone is not afraid,
Although she trembles in her place.

Now adder's-tongue new gilds the mould*,
The ferns unroll their woolly coils,  
And honey-bee begins her toils
Where maple trees their fringe unfold.

The goldfinch dons his summer coat,  
The wild bee drones her mellow bass, 
 And butterflies of hardy race
In genial sunshine bask and float.

The Artist now is sketching in 
 The outlines of his broad design  
So soon to deepen line on line,
Till June and summer days begin.

Now Shadow soon will pitch her tent
Beneath the trees in grove and field,
And all the wounds of life be healed,
By orchard bloom and lilac scent.

--John Burroughs, 1837-1921

*"Mold" in British English.  Flowers are now adorning the ground, where before moldy leaf remnants lay

I Will Praise the Lord at All Times

Winter has a joy for me,
While the Saviour's charms I read,
Lowly, meek, from blemish free,
In the snowdrop's pensive head.

Spring returns, and brings along
Life-invigorating suns:
Hark! the turtle's plaintive song 
Seems to speak His dying groans!

Summer has a thousand charms,
All expressive of His worth;
'Tis His sun that lights and warms,
His the air that cools the earth.

What! has autumn left to say
Nothing of a Saviour's grace?
Yes, the beams of milder day
Tell me of his smiling face.

Light appears with early dawn,
While the sun makes haste to rise;
See His bleeding beauties drawn
On the blushes of the skies.

Evening with a silent pace,
Slowly moving in the west,
Shews an emblem of His grace,
Points to an eternal rest. 

--William Cowper, ~1772; Olney, England

More Flowers of the Upper Midwest

Travels (related to the Christian life) took me to Minnesota recently. Though I love the southwest, there are things there I find refreshing in the Midwest:

Johnny Jump-Up; violet strain

" '26So if you cannot do such a small thing,' [said Jesus] 'why do you worry about the rest? 27Consider how the lilies grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!…' "

Berean Study Bible

Refreshing Rivers

These pictures are from the White River, a tributary to the Salt River in Arizona. The Salt River and another tributary, the Black River, form the boundary between two Apache Indian tribes in Arizona.

Scarlet Petnstemmon

A Grand Canyon

A spot where you can drive down to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.  Not quite as "splendid" as in the National Park, but still beautiful.

At the confluence of Diamond Creek & the Colorado River, May 2019.